1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to medical equipment, and more particularly to apparatus related to intravenous feeding.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the process of supplying nutrition and fluids to patients by intravenous means, it is known to suspend a fluid-holding bag from an intravenous stand. The stand supports the bag close to the patient at all times. It is further known to pass the intravenous fluid through a combination pump and monitoring device interposed between the intravenous bag and the patient. The pump-monitor is usually mounted to the same stand as the bag.
Prior intravenous stands include a wheeled base with an upright tube fixed thereto. The tube is usually approximately four feet long. A rod that normally has a diameter of approximately one inch and is approximately four feet long fits inside and is supported in the stand tube such that approximately three to four feet of the rod extend out of the tube. The exposed end of the rod is usually designed with a cross arm for holding the intravenous bag. The combination pump-monitor is normally clamped to the tube of the stand in order to keep the center of gravity of the pump-monitor as low to the floor as practical and thus contribute to the stability of the stand.
A patient connected to an intravenous bag is somewhat restricted in her activities because the stand and bag must accompany her wherever she goes. If the patient is ambulatory, she merely pushes the stand with her as she walks about. However, a problem arises with non-ambulatory patients. In those situations, an attendant is required to push the patient in a wheelchair or gurney cart. The attendant must then handle two awkward items: the wheelchair or gurney cart and the stand. To assure that the intravenous tube does not pull on the patient, the attendant must constantly exercise care to keep the stand very close to the wheelchair or gurney cart. As a result, transporting the patient is a time consuming and even hazardous task. In many cases, safe transportation of the patient requires that her wheelchair or gurney cart and the stand be pushed by two different attendants. That practice represents an inefficient use of personnel.
To overcome the problems associated with transporting both a gurney cart carrying a patient and an intravenous bag for the patient, many gurney carts are equipped with a socket for holding the rod of an intravenous stand. The intent is that the rod can be removed from the tube of the stand base and inserted into the gurney cart socket. Then both the patient and her intravenous equipment can be transported on only the gurney cart.
However, in practice that solution rarely works. That is because invariably the gurney cart socket and the stand rod have different diameters. The gurney cart sockets are sized to fit a rod having a diameter of approximately 0.50 inches. That size rod is satisfactory to hold an intravenous bag, but it is too small to properly hold a pump-monitor unit. Accordingly, as mentioned, prior intravenous stands invariably have one inch diameter rods with correspondingly sized tubes for holding the rods, and 0.50 inch diameter rods are only rarely used in hospitals. Consequently, the great majority of intravenous rods in present use will not fit in the gurney cart sockets. Even if a rod is used that is interchangable between the prior intravenous stands and gurney carts, the pump-monitor unit must be unclamped from the stand tube and reclamped to the rod each time the rod is transferred from the stand to the gurney cart.
A further problem related to prior intravenous stands is that their rods are not designed to be easily removed from the stand tubes. The long length of approximately four feet makes a rod impossible to withdraw from a stand tube without tipping the stand base such that the rod clears the room ceiling. Removing a stand rod is thus awkward and even difficult for an attendant to perform alone, especially with an intravenous bag mounted to the rod. For practical purposes, then, the rod is a permanent part of the stand, with the previously explained disadvantages associated with that construction.
Thus, a need exists for improvements in supports for intravenous related equipment.